On the Right Track

Most web libraries make 90 percent of the job simple and the rest impossible. Rails,an open source framework programmed in Ruby,is flexible enough to succeed with that remaining 10 percent.

Web development is often characterized by quick and dirty hacks with a colorful mixture of program code and HTML. However, an effort is underway to bring a more formal structure to web programming. For example, Rails [1] uses Ruby to implement a classical Model View Controller (MVC) framework, something that the world of smalltalk has used for some time. The MVC framework abstracts the data processing in the model from the GUI-based manipulation code (controller) and the representation code (view), see Figure 1. This technique of abstracting the data from the data processing methods can be applied to anything from a database table to a workflow model for a largescale enterprise. The model is partly or completely visualized in the view. Controllers react to user input (among other things) to initiate status changes within the model.

The city of Madrid wants to spur small to medium size businesses. June 3 the city council opened a technology development and training center called Madrid on Rails to help SMEs find a market advantage through open source software.